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THE SONG BOOK 
OF QUONG LEE 
OF LIMEHOUSE 



By the Same Author 

Nights in London 

Twinkletoes 

Limehouse Nights 

Out and About London 

London Lamps 

Pavements and Pastures 

The Coloured Causeway 
in preparation 



THE SONG BOOK 

OF QUONG LEE OF 

LIMEHOUSE 



TRANSCRIBED BY 

THOMAS BURKE 




NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1920 






COPYRIGHT, 1920, 
BY 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 



4/ t 



JL5 



DEC 14 I 
©CI.A604526 



T 

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o 

a 



TO 
WINIFRED 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Of Buying and Selling n 

Of the Power of Music 13 

The Lamplighter 14 

Declining an Invitation 15 

A Night-piece 17 

A Smile Given in Passing 18 

Of a National Cash Register 19 

Under a Shining Window 20 

Exchange of Compliments 21 

A Song of Little Girls 23 

Of Shop Windows 24 

At the Feast of Lanterns 25 

One Service Breeds Another 26 

An Offer of a Lodging 27 

Of Two Dwellings 29 

Concerning English Gambling 30 

Of Politicians 32 

Of the Great White War 34 1 

At the Time of Clear Weather 35 

Parent and Child 37 

Of Worship and Conduct 38 



PAGE 

Going to Market 39 

A Portrait 41 

On a Saying of Mencius 43 

Dockside Noises 45 

Reproof and Approbation 46 

—The Feast of Go Nien 47 

-sDirections for Making Tea 49 

Of Inaccessible Beauty 50 

Night and Day 52 

Of a Night in War-time 53 

A Love Lesson 55 

A Rebuke 57 

Upstairs 59 

Footsteps 60 

Making a Feast 61 

The Case of Ho Ling 62 

An Upright Man 64 

Breaking-point 65 

An English Gentleman 66 



THE SONG BOOK 
OF QUONG LEE 
OF LIMEHOUSE 



OF BUYING AND SELLING 

THROUGHOUT the day I sit behind the 
counter of my shop, 
And the odours of my country are all about me: 
Areca nut and betel leaf and manioc, 
Lon-yan and suey sen, 
Chandoo and dried seaweed, 
Tchah and tong-kiang. 

And these carry my mind to half-forgotten days, 
When taels were plentiful and care was hard to hold. 

All day I sell for trifling sums the wares of my own 

land, 
And buy for many cash such things as people wish to 

sell, 
That I may sell them again to others, with some profit 

to myself. 

One night a white-skinned damsel came to me, 
And offered, with fair words, something she wished to 
sell. 

ii 



OF BUYING AND SELLING 

Now if I desire a jacket I can buy it with coin, 
Or barter for it something of my stock. 
If I desire rice-spirit, that, too, I can buy; 
And elegant entertainment and delights are all to be 
had for cash. 

But there is one good thing above all things precious, 
That no man may buy. 

And though I buy readily most things that I desire, 
The thing that the white maid offered at my own price, 
I would not buy. 



12 



OF THE POWER OF MUSIC 

IN the little room behind my shop, 
I refresh myself of an evening with my machine- 
that-sings. 
Two songs has my machine-that-sings, 

And these are Hitchy Koo and JVe don't want to 
lose you. 

When, in the evening, a friend honours me with a 

visit, 
I entrance his ears with the air of Hitchy Koo. 
But when I am afflicted with a visit 
From those who fill me with a spirit of no-satisfaction, 
I command my machine-that-sings 
To render the music of We don't want to lose you. 

The noise that at this moment greets the ear 
Of the elegant visitor to this despicable hovel, 
Is the incomparable music of Hitchy Koo. 
And the price of this person's tea 
Is but a paltry six shillings the pound, mister. 

13 



THE LAMPLIGHTER 

THE dark days now begin, when in afternoon 
The Great Night Lantern makes a razor-edge 
of black and white. 
And one comes called the Lamplighter, 
And the straight stiff lamps of these stiff London 

streets, 
At his quick touch burst into light. 

At this shy hour, 

I see from my unshaded window, 

Bright girls, hair flowing, go by with shuttered faces, 

Holding close captive their warm insurgent bosoms. 

And then, at the corner, 

Some slender lad with bold and upright carriage, 

Greets them, and the shuttered lanterns of their faces 

Burst with light at the touch of the lamplighter. 



O kind ingenious lamplighter, 
Will you please step this way? 

14 



DECLINING AN INVITATION 

DON'T think of me as one of no courtesy, 
O elegant and refined foreign one, 
If I do not accept your high-minded invitation 
To drink rice-spirit with you, 

At the little place called the Blue Lantern near Penny- 
fields. 

Please don't regard me as lacking in gracious be- 
haviour, 

Or as insufferably ignorant of the teachings of the 
Book of Rites. 

But I am sojourning here in a strange land, 

And am not fully informed of the usages of your 
dignified people. 

As the wise Mencius observed in one of his inspired 
hours, 

Doubtless thinking forward to situation of this per- 
son — 

15 



DECLINING AN INVITATION 

Child who has once suffered unpleasant sensation of 

burning, 
Ever afterward reluctant to approach stove. 

Wherefore, as this person once accepted an invitation, 

In words as affable and polished as yours, Mister, 

To drink rice-spirit at the Blue Lantern, 

And was there subjected to a custom of this country, 

Of an entirely disturbing and unpleasing nature, 

Known as Ceremony of Confidence; 

He has, since that day, viewed the Blue Lantern, 

With a feeling of most decided aversion. 



16 



A NIGHT-PIECE 

1 CLIMB ED the other day up to the roof 
Of the commanding and palatial Home for 
Asiatics, 
And looked across this city at the hour of no-light. 
Across great space of dark I looked, 
But the skirt of darkness had a hundred rents 
Made by the lights of many people's homes. 

My life is a great skirt of darkness, 
But human kindliness has torn it through, 
So that it shows ten thousand gaping rents 
Where the light comes in. 



17 



A SMILE GIVEN IN PASSING 

AS I walked the street in the purring evening, 
A little maid with yellow curls 
Tossed me a smile; and suddenly Pennyfields 
Was filled with light; and the light of the stars 
Grew pale. 

I may not see her again, but I hold her smile in my 

heart, 
And she is with me in my shop and about the streets. 
My shop may tumble down; 

West India Dock may some time suffer a drought; 
Grief and Joy come for a day; 
And Hope and Fear and Desire and Deed 
Arise and pass and are no more. 
But the beauty born of her quickened smile 
Can never die. 



18 



OF A NATIONAL CASH REGISTER 

LAST week this person, desiring to make it known 
J That he was in all ways moving up to the date, 
Introduced into his insignificant shop 
A machine-that-counts, 
Called a National Cash Register, 
Which announces to refined and intelligent customers 
The amounts of their purchases. 

This week this person purchased a whole day's amuse- 
ment ; 

And the amount he paid for this was another's discom- 
fiture and pain. 

And after a night of cogitation, 

He is moved to reflect on the far-reaching and whole- 
some value 

Of a National Register which would announce to the 
face 

Such purchases as these. 



19 



UNDER A SHINING WINDOW 

ALAMPLIT window 
At the top of a tenement house near Poplar 
High Street 
Shines fluently out of the night; 
And looking upward I see 

That the bricks of the house are bright and fair to the 
eye. 

There are no flowers in West India Dock Road; 
Nothing but brick and stone and iron and spent air. 
But when rough brick and stone are a shrine for 

beauty, 
They become themselves beautiful. 
Perhaps if this person encloses within himself 
Beautiful thoughts and amiable intentions, 
His insignificant frame may acquire 
The noble outlines of that tenement house. 



20 



EXCHANGE OF COMPLIMENTS 

AT ten o'clock last night an ugly fellow 
Of skinny exterior and most ungracious manner, 
Was thrown with a total loss of gravity 
From the flapping doors of the Blue Lantern. 

He lurched in most ungainly fashion past this person's 

shop, 
This person standing at his door, 
And used base language of an unpolished nature, 
Calling him Ugly Yellow Bastard, 
Hop Fiend and Dirty Doper, 
Eater of Dogs and Cheater at Puckapoo, 
Son-of-a-bitch and devotee of vice. 

This person did not respond in like manner, 

Knowing that he is not himself all-perfect, 

Nor even in every hour 

A devout follower of the teachings of the Four Books. 

21 



EXCHANGE OF COMPLIMENTS 

He contented himself with repeating in a far-reaching 

tone, 
The words of the lofty Lao Tzu: 
When pot upon stove reproveth kettle for blackness, 
Pot speaking out of his turn. 



22 



A SONG OF LITTLE GIRLS 

1WANT to make a song of the little girls 
That live about this quarter. 

I could make a song of boys quite easily with words, 

But words are too blunt for such delicate tilings as 
girls. 

I would like to make my song of them with bees and 
butterflies. 

One looks at the boy, and says Boy; 

And lo, one has described him. 

But little girls are morning light and melody; 

Their happy hair flutters and flies, or curtains their 
laughing faces, 

Faces glad as the sun at dawn. 

Their clear, cool skin is like wine to the eyes. 

The lines of their fluent limbs run like a song, 

And every step is a note of grace which the frock re- 
peats. 

Don't you think it a pity, and greatly to be deplored 
That these should lose this beauty, 
And pass from it to the guile and trickery of woman? 

23 



OF SHOP WINDOWS 

LOOKING closely at the glass windows of my 
J shop, 
I see in them the whole of my shop reflected. 
Looking at my windows closely from the street, 
I see in them the life of the street reflected. 
Yet if I stand some paces away, the glass remains 

transparent, 
And I see clearly through it to the things beyond. 

If I look with close vision 

Into the hearts of men, 

I see my own small heart reflected. 

I will try henceforth not to look at them too closely. 



24 



AT THE FEAST OF LANTERNS 

LITHELY on their strings swing the many-col- 
J oured lanterns, 
For this is the Feast of Lanterns; 
And Pennyfields and Weit India Dock Road 
Are to-night a part of my own country, 
Aglow with the hues of the Peacock's Tail, 
Very amiable to the eye. 

In a recess of my heart 
Is a poor street hung with lanterns. 
These lanterns are my thoughts, 
And they are lighted at the last hours of the evenings, 
When through this street 

Walks the willowy maiden from the tea-shop across 
the road. 



25 



ONE SERVICE BREEDS ANOTHER 

ONE of this person's white-skinned friends, Bill 
Hawkins, 
Who labours at the waterside, 
Had occasion, at the time of unkind weather, 
To rescue from the certain peril of drowning, 
One who had slipped from the edge of a wharf to the 
dock. 

Without reward the flower serves the bee. 

The mother serves the child with pain and toil. 

The soldier serves his king without king's gratitude. 

And this person has noted with much private amuse- 
ment 

How, since this one service rendered, 

Bill Hawkins goes ever from his accustomed path 

To add service to service to the one he rescued; 

While the rescued one looks ever upon Bill Hawkins 

With eyes of no-approval, indeed, with intense dis- 
gust. 

26 



AN OFFER OF A LODGING 

LITTLE maid of the yellow curls, 
You look sad as you pass my window, 
You look as though you would like to creep into some 

warm nest, 
And hide your golden head. 

Oh, look, little maid! I have made you a ne9t! 
Creep into it, and I will hide you away, 
Quietly, in the nest of my heart. 
I will wrap you around with verses, and cover you 
with fair thoughts. 

There is yet one little corner left, 
Free from the world's defilement; 
One little corner where not a breath of wrong 
Shall enter to disturb your slumbering. 
And I will cherish you there 
In the nest you will make so pure. 

27 



AN OFFER OF A LODGING 

I will hold you and guard you safe from the snares 

of the stony streets. 
Be at peace, little maid, and lie in trust; 
For though my feet may stumble, and I may fall, 
The corner that houses you I will ever keep whole. 



28 



OF TWO DWELLINGS 

AT the lower end of Limehouse Causeway 
Is a house where girls surrender their bodies 
To the pleasure of base-minded and unpolished men, 
In return for shillings. 
And on the walls about this house 
Blossoms at summer the wild white rose. 

In a tiny room at the top of a tenement 
Lives a white maid of surpassing virtue, 
Gentle in manner and quiet and dutiful, 
Combing her golden curls each morning, 
Before a window that looks out to hell; 
That looks upon cesspools of mud and mounds of 
refuse and the offal of the shops. 



29 



CONCERNING ENGLISH 
GAMBLING 

ONE morning, at the season of Clear Weather, 
As I sat alone in my Tea- House of the Refined 
White Lily, 
A stranger of affable address approached me, 
And showed me, with multitude of argument, 
To what advantage I should come, 
Were I to place the whole of my substance with him, 
Even to my shirt, 

In token of my faith in Ice Cream Cornet for the Lin- 
colnshire. 

And because I would not do so, 

He withdrew himself from me as from one of mean 

birth and behaviour, 
Reviling me with the name of No-Sport 
And other characters of opprobrium. 

But this person told him 
That he carried always on written leaves 

30 



CONCERNING ENGLISH GAMBLING 

The words of his august father, 
Concerning horses and women and the wind in the 
hills and the hooting of owls. 

He did not tell him that he knew full well 
That Ice Cream Cornet had been scratched from the 
Lincolnshire. 



3i 



OF POLITICIANS 

UPON a time the amiable Bill Hawkins, 
Married a fair wife, demure and of chaste 
repute, 
Keeping closely from her, however, 
Any knowledge of the manner of man he had been. 

Upon the nuptial night, 

Awaking and finding himself couched with a woman, 

As had happened on divers occasions, 

He arose and dressed and departed, 

Leaving at the couch's side four goodly coins. 

But in the street, 

Remembering the occasion and his present estate of 

marriage, 
He returned with a haste of no-dignity, 
Filled with emotions of an entirely disturbing nature, 
Fear that his wife should discover his absence, 
And place evil construction upon it, being uppermost. 

32 



OF POLITICIANS 

Entering stealthily, then, with the toes of the leopard, 

With intention of quickly disrobing, 

And rejoining the forsaken bride, 

He perceived her sitting erect on the couch, 

Biting shrewdly, with a distressing air of experience, 

At one of the coins. 

Even so it is when Big Politician meets Little Pol- 
itician. 



33 



OF THE GREAT WHITE WAR 

DURING the years when the white men fought 
each other, 
I observed how the aged cried aloud in public places 
Of honour and chivalry and the duty of the young ; 
And how the young ceased doing the pleasant things 

of youth, 
And became suddenly old, 
And marched away to defend the aged. 

And I observed how the aged 

Became suddenly young; 

And mouthed fair phrases, one to the other, about the 

Supreme Sacrifice, 
And turned to their account-books, murmuring gravely : 
Business as Usual. 

And brought out bottles of wine and drank the health 
Of the young men they had sent out to die for them. 



34 



AT THE TIME OF CLEAR 
WEATHER 

IN the agreeable public gardens of Poplar 
The bushes are bright with buds, 
For this is the season of Clear Weather. 
There blossom the quiet flowers of this country: 
The timid lilac, 
The unassuming hawthorn, 
The dignified chestnut, 
And the girlish laburnum ; 
And the mandarin of them all is the rhododendron. 

In the untilled field of my heart 

Many buds are bursting. 

There is a little bush of kindliness towards all men. 

There is a slender tree of forgiveness for all wrongs. 

There is a humble growth of repentance for past sins. 

And around the field is a thick hedge of thankfulness. 



35 



AT THE TIME OF CLEAR WEATHER 

And ho! in the midst of all 
Stands the tree of a hundred boughs, 
Laden with the sweetest of all buds 
Which are breaking to flower under the sun of a 
maiden's eyes. 



36 



PARENT AND CHILD 

OFTEN of an evening I take the air 
And linger on the bridge by the Isle of Dogs, 
And sometimes see 
That swan-like shape of the ship that brought me 

hither. 
Often since then that ship has gone 
To the land from which it brought me, 
And on each voyage my heart accompanies it. 

Should I some day in person journey with it, 

My honourable father would welcome his little son. 

He would not see this worn and tattered one, 

This lean and sorrowful son of the waterside. 

He would not see this parchment face, 

This figure without lustre. 

He would see his little son who left him long ago; 

For love would brush away the husk of years, 

And leave a little child. 

37 



OF WORSHIP AND CONDUCT 

AT the corner of the Causeway on every seventh 
evening 
Gathers the band of Salvation Army, 
Making big noise of Washed-in-Blood-of-Lamb. 

At temple in East India Dock Road 
Men gather in white clothes and sing, 
And march with candles and pray to Lady. 

At shop in Pennyflelds many times a day, 
This person pays respect to Big Man Joss, 
And burns to him prayer-papers and punk-sticks. 

And all day long men toil for wife and child; 
Wife suffer and stint to make bigger plate for child; 
Child beg in street for food for ailing mother; 
Sister wear ragged clothes for sake of little brother. 

And none of these bowed to Joss, 

Or marched with candle, 

Or washed in Blood of Lamb. 

38 



GOING TO MARKET 

GOOD morning, mister, how do you do ? 
I am going to Salmon Lane, to the cheap mar- 
ket, for dainty foods. 
Won't you come with me, mister? 

I shall buy meat and fish and a loaf of bread, 

And fresh fruit and potatoes. 

I shall buy a cluster of flowers and a bottle of wine, 

Some butter and some jam, 

And biscuits and nuts and candy. 

For I give an English feast to-night to a friend with 

yellow curls, 
And every dish will be cooked by me. 

Into the pot will go sharp spices to flavour your Eng- 
lish meats; 
Cayenne and thyme and sage and salt, 
A sprig of parsley for garnish, 
And some delicate bamboo shoots. 

39 



GOING TO MARKET 

But the sweetest spice will not be seen, 

It will leap with a spring from my heart to the pot as 
I stir it. 

I am going to gather it on the way to the market 

From my own sweet thoughts and from elegant con- 
versation 

With notable misters. 

Won't you come with me? 



43 



A PORTRAIT 

HOW shall I write of you, little friend, 
To my father on the River of Sincerity? 
I will tell him of your twenty yellow curls 
Tumbling in a cascade about your shoulders; 
Your bright mouth and fine brow, 
Lit by yet brighter eyes, 
Where fireflies dance! 
How in your cheeks you hold 

The colours of the flower before its leaves unclose; 
How the tones of your voice sounding in my ears 
Float before my eyes like strings of lanterns; 
How when I look closely upon you, 
I see my thoughts like a white stream in your eyes; 
How, as I walk down the street where you have trod, 
The very stones are to me the smiles that you scatter 

as you pass. 
How your look thrills my heart as a guitar thrills to 

the touch. 



41 



A PORTRAIT 

And I will tell him that you are not for me, 

For you are white and I am yellow; 

Unless, perchance, shame and disgrace fell upon you, 

As it falls upon some girls of this quarter, 

And your neighbours and friends passed by the other 

way. 
Then, perhaps, it would be permitted to me 
To render service to you. 



4* 



ON A SAYING OF MENCIUS 

HAT was well said of Mencius: 
The misfortunes of one are the entertainment 
of many. 

When Prosperity attended the occasions of this person, 

And his heart smiled within him, 

He was regarded and received on all sides by his fel- 
lows 

With attitudes of dignity and expressions of mandarin- 
like solemnity; 

And his laughing heart could fetch no smile 

To the faces of those about him. 

But when, on a recent manifestation of evil spirits, 
He was haled before those in authority, 
And commanded to pay very many taels, 
For having in his possession some morsels of the Great 
Tobacco, 

43 



ON A SAYING OF MENCIUS 

And his heart was heavy and dark as a rain-cloud 

within him, 
He was received on all sides 
With attitudes of mirth and expressions of no-gravity. 



44 



DOCKSIDE NOISES 

HERE are in Limehouse many sounds; 
A hundred different sounds by day and night. 

The crash and mutter of the dockside railway, 

The noise of quarrel, the noise of fist on face, 

My country's songs, guitars and gramophones, 

The noise of boot on stone, 

The noise of women bargaining their flesh, 

The noise of singers in the ships, 

Sounds of threat and sounds of fear, 

Blasts of hammer and steel and iron, 

The scream of syren, the cry of hooter, 

The clangour of angry bells, 

The boom of Arsenal guns, the clatter of factories, 

The panic of feet and malevolent words. 

All these sounds I know, and they disturb me not. 
The sound that is to me most terrible, 
That snatches slumber from me, 
Is the sound that is most common : 
The scream of a child at night. 

45 



REPROOF AND APPROBATION 

BECAUSE I gave a piece of silk to my friend of 
the golden curls, 

One (may the dogs devour him) threw a stone at my 
window, 

And hooted and jeered and made base noise with his 
mouth. 

Nay, worse, this son of a sea-slug (may the floods over- 
whelm him) 

Hurled hard names at my friend, 

Calling her Tart and Flusey and Tom; and as we 
walked together, 

Cried: "Watcher, Nancy, who's yer friend with the 
melon-face, 

And the bug-eaten cabbage-leaf on his head?" 

The lean and scurvy dog that slinks about Penny- 
fields, 

Flew in great fear at sight of this reprover of our 
doings, 

And came to me and rubbed itself against my shoe. 

4 6 



THE FEAST OF GO NIEN 

WE are now in the Pepper Month ; 
And soon will come the Feast of Go Nien. 
Then I will pay my debts, and gather in my dues. 
I will walk in the great procession; 
And afterwards I will hang up my devil-chasers, 
And will proceed to the restaurant of Ng Tack, 
And drink spring wine with him and my friends. 

That evening I shall eat of the best: 
Of chicken cream and pigeon in soy-ed, 
With a brown noodle of pork and prawn, 
And a curry of fish and a large Chung Goun, 
Sweet onions and black eggs and chow chow. 
And when we have done, 

We will have cakes and tea and music and songs, 
And call in our white friends to sit with us. 

For this one day we shall be each to the other, 
What the other would desire. 

47 



THE FEAST OF GO NIEN 

Perhaps it is well that this day 
Comes but once in the year's calendar; 
For if we always so behaved, one to the other, 
There would be no business done. 



48 



DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING TEA 

IN making tchah for table each man has his own 
way. 
Some serve it dashed with lemon, and some with bam- 
boo shoot, 
And some with sugar, in the English way, 
And some with spot of sam-shu. 
But when one offers tchah to distinguished visitor, 
One offers the noble suey sen and flavours it 
With the dried bud of the noble chrysanthemum. 

Consider these verses, little friend, 

As cups of suey sen, 

Flavoured with the buds of the flower of all flowers. 



49 



OF INACCESSIBLE BEAUTY 

LADIES in elegant silks and laces 
Have come at times to my insignificant shop, 

For pieces of jade or banners or curious cuttings of 
ivory. 

And I look with insufferable emotion 

Upon their roseleaf skin, 

And breathe the soft scents that flow from their gar- 
ments, 

And long to soothe their lily-fingered hands. 

Under their eyes 

I am seized with longings unutterable, 

And am filled with a sickness of my present unkind 
estate. 

But then I remember 
That Beauty's not always a star, 
Not always remote, not always in lofty places, 
Chrysanthemum-clad and lily-sheathed; 
But often lies in the hedges, 

50 



OF INACCESSIBLE BEAUTY 

And peeps from street corners, 

And lurks shyly behind broken doorways. 

And I think upon the kind and considerate beauty 
Of the maid with the golden curls, 
And her patched, uncoloured robes of common cloth. 
And with a change of mood I charge the elegant 

ladies 
Three times the value of the article chosen, 
And thus tear from their flowery bodies 
Pieces of their billowing silk 
To deck the less fervid beauty of my friend. 



sr 



NIGHT AND DAY 

THE waters of the river flow swiftly at Lime- 
house Hole, 
Past wharves and masts and funnels 
And brown sails and beautiful steel ships, 
And ugly gardens. 

Throughout the day these things are one ; 

One body of dire endeavour. 

But when evening leads in the night, 

This thing is broken into a thousand pleasant things, 

And the warm notes of night 

Make happy discord of the day's harsh harmonies. 



52 



OF A NIGHT IN WAR-TIME 

UPON a night I sat behind my shop, 
In happy talk with casual company: 
The upright Ho Ling; the grave Cheng Huan; 
And the round-bodied and amiable Sway Too of my 

own country; 
Together with the maid of the golden curls, 
A sad-eyed seaman from Malay, 
And two pale Englishmen, Bill Hawkins and Jack 
Brown. 

We sat beneath the lantern and drank our tchah in 

fellowship, 
And spoke of this and of that. 
And the moon rose and mated with the soft smells of 

my store, 
And brought forth a spirit that spoke to us 
Of things forgotten or lost or long despaired of. 

Friendship bound us together, and we sat late, 
Glad of the night and each glad of his companions; 

53 



OF A NIGHT IN WAR-TIME 

While men in another land 

Wrought horrors upon their fellows beneath this moon, 
Drunk with the wicked words of the wicked lords of 
men. 



54 



A LOVE LESSON 

LAST night I dreamed of the maid with yellow 
J curls, 
She came to me in the room above my shop, 
And we two were alone, freed from the laws of day. 
I held her then to myself. 

I took from her her clothing, garment by garment, 
And watched them fall about her feet — 
White petals of a flower. 
And I drew from her to myself her thoughts, one by 

one, 
As often I had wished, till all of her was mine. 
And then I was sad, for nothing was left to love. 

And quickly I clothed her again, garment by garment, 
And gave her back her thoughts, one by one, 
And awoke in joy. 

I was glad that the dream was a dream, 
And that all of her was not mine; 

55 



A LOVE LESSON 

For I had learned 

That love released from bond, and unburdened of its 

fetters, 
Is love no longer. 



56 



A REBUKE 

EXCUSE me, mister, if I enter a gentle protest 
About the manner in which you comport your- 
self, 
When taking the air about the streets. 
For looking at you, one would form the opinion 
That you were a man of much worth and nobility, 
That you were high in officialdom, 
A councillor of the king or a learned judge, 
Or one whose piety and wisdom 
Had marked him out to sit above his fellows. 

One would think thus to see the swinging arms, 
The slow protuberant belly, sheathed in a vest of 

scarlet, 
And the gold chain of Albert, the great Consort; 
To see the haughty head, the portly mien, 
The solemn gait, and the complacency with which you 

view the world. 



57 



A REBUKE 

Don't interrupt! I only wished to tell you 
That your claim to the excessive esteem of your neigh- 
bours 
Is wholly without foundation. 
Do please remember, mister, that that scarlet belly 
Was acquired by the labours of little children 
Whom you employ to stick labels on bottles. 



5» 



I 



UPSTAIRS 

HAVE lifted her over my threshold to-night. 



Many moons have risen and set since she received my 

napi; 
But now she is here and has entered my upper room, 
Where is a shrine for the joss of happiness, 
And a soft couch and delicate hangings, 
And fine things for fine fingers to handle, 
And shaded lanterns and a guitar and my machine- 

that-sings. 

There are ornaments of jade and lacquer, 

And the bamboo pipe that I have laid aside, 

And the written leaves containing my verses. 

But there are no writing-tablets, no ink and no brushes. 

For now my verses will be written upon her brow. 



59 



FOOTSTEPS 

AS I lie on my pallet at night, 
I hear from the street the sound of passing foot- 
steps ; 
And I can sort and name these passing footsteps. 
There are the truculent steps of the seeker after 

trouble. 
There are the fearful feet of those who are not at 

ease 
In these implacable streets. 
There are the fugitive feet of crime, 
And the solemn re-assuring tread of big policemen; 
And the interrupted steps of the revellers, 
And the fleet feet of those who have purchased trouble. 

But those that tread most heavily on my heart 
Are the light and lingering footsteps of tired young 
women. 



60 



MAKING A FEAST 

HO! Friend and enemies of Pennyflelds, 
A feast is spread, and you are all invited. 
Many tides have risen and retired 
Since I exchanged the fervid skies of my own country 
For the thin skies and leaden streets of the West. 
Long have I sojourned, seeking my desire, 
Keeping my shop, and looking always with long eyes 
At others 1 guesting-tables, at whose top sat love. 

From my cold corner 

I have watched their feast of fondness, and my heart 
has left me 

And has beaten like a lost bird at their warm win- 
dows, 

And none would let him in. 

But now, O honourables, 
My window is alight, my room is warmed, 
The table is set and the places are laid, and Love 
waits to greet you. 

6i 



THE CASE OF HO LING 

TRULY the ways of mandarins are inscrutable. 
My estimable and upright friend, Ho Ling, 

Long had desired to return to his own country. 

He bore himself in Limehouse without reproach, 

A reputable stranger, of mild manners and sweet of 
address. 

Against him none could bring a charge or speak a word 
of upbraiding. 

He conformed in all ways to the laws of correct con- 
duct. 

Yet when he sought assistance to return to his own 

country, 
Being without means, 
And hung at the ear of notable men who could help 

him, 
They refused to hear him, 
And would in no way help him to go where his heart 

was set. 

62 



THE CASE OF HO LING 

Even the charitable ones regretted 
That his case was not for them. 

Wherefore my friend forsook his quiet and regular 

ways, 
And went about as one possessed by thunder and fire, 
Stormily; doing many things of a reprehensible char- 
acter, 
Committing grave misdemeanours in the public streets, 
And following evil ways in a manner to attract atten- 
tion. 

Whereupon, 

The lords of this country placed him upon a boat, 

And commanded that he should be carried at their own 

cost 
To the place whither he most desired to go. 



63 



AN UPRIGHT MAN 

THE grave and thin-faced one who keeps the Be- 
spoke Tailors' Shop, 
And subjects his child to treatment of an ungenerous 

nature, 
Never goes into the Blue Lantern; 
Never takes pellet of li-un or nut of areca, 
Or communes with Black Smoke, 
Or loses money at puckapoo, 
Or makes public outcry or gesture expressive of delight 

in his friends, 
Or does foolish or unworthy things, 
Or makes exchange of hats with friends. 

He has no friends, for he has no weaknesses. 
While others fall to the simple follies of humanity, 
He walks ever upright and self-contained, devout and 

dignified, 
And ill-treats his child at night. 

64 



BREAKING-POINT 

MANY heavy blows has this patient person's back 
received, 
These many years. 
He has lost friends and money; 
He has lost his own country; 
His well-framed enterprises have gone awry, 
And his heart has gone hungry these many years for 
love. 

All these things he has suffered without murmur. 
One thing alone has driven him to utter piercing cries, 
And make gestures expressive of volcano in eruption; 
And that is the bootmender across the road 
Who sings hymns to himself in the evening. 

For that is true that the sage has spoken: 

That it is the smell of gin-and-onions about the secre- 
tary 

That drives his master who long has suffered gin-and- 
cloves 

To the breaking-point of exasperation. 

65 



AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN 

1 DETERMINED yesterday to become English 
gentleman ; 
And I have this morning bought a bowler hat. 
I have bought brown boots and a suit of rare blue 

serge, 
Which the affable one who supplied me with it, 
Spoke of as Natty; and added his assurance 
That I would look Quite the Gentleman, 
I have bought white collars and many coloured ties, 
And a walking-stick and a blue-spotted shirt. 

Appareled thus, I strolled this evening down Penny- 
fields, 

And the old men came out with expressions of no- 
kindness. 

They made ugly mouths, 

And passed words one to the other of a derisive nature. 

But I am young Quong Lee, 
Who write verse in the English tongue, 

66 



AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN 

And am quite English gentleman. 
And English gentleman 

Not suffer himself to be disturbed by the hooting of 
owls. 



67 



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